Autonomous vehicles, also variously referred to as driverless vehicles, self-driving vehicles, and robotic cars, are as is known vehicles capable via a navigation system of sensing their environment and navigating between destinations without requiring human input or control. The navigation system typically comprises a combination of on-board and remotely located systems and/or services, and may variously based on radar, laser light, global positioning satellite (GPS), odometry, and computer vision technologies. Autonomous vehicles further include control systems capable of analysing sensory data to distinguish between different vehicles encountered on the path of travel, to allow plotting a course between locations. While fully autonomous vehicles (i.e., vehicles lacking any means of driver input) are currently not permitted on public roadways, this technology when fully developed and implemented will provide numerous advantages, including without intending any limitation reductions in traffic gridlock and improvements in traffic flow, including reductions in traffic collisions and associated injuries and economic cost, increased travel options for physically impaired individuals, reduced requirements for parking capacity, reductions in crime, and others.
A further potential advantage for autonomous vehicle technology is facilitation of new business models for mobility as a service, particularly in a sharing economy. Indeed, it is anticipated that the initial applications of first-generation autonomous vehicle technology will be for use in for-profit vehicle fleets. A user desiring to travel from her current location to a destination would simply issue (and pay for) a request for a ride from a for-profit enterprise, and in due course an autonomous vehicle would arrive to the user's location to collect her.
Among other concerns attendant to a for-profit fleet of autonomous vehicles is energy consumption, since for any vehicle fleet, autonomous or otherwise, increased vehicle energy consumption directly translates to increased overhead and reduced profits. A likely strategy for fleet owners would be to provide autonomous vehicles that are as fuel-efficient as current technology makes feasible. However, the manner of operation of even highly fuel-efficient vehicles can influence energy consumption positively or negatively, and is also a factor to be considered by fleet owners/operators.
For example, for an unoccupied autonomous vehicle it would certainly be possible to simply change the vehicle heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system from an “on” to an “off” setting to reduce energy consumption while the vehicle is not actively in use or in service. However, prior to returning the autonomous vehicle to service, i.e. picking up a passenger, the HVAC system would have to be activated to return the vehicle passenger cabin to a comfortable temperature and/or humidity set point. Absent this step, the passenger cabin could be too hot or too cold for the passenger's liking, and passenger dissatisfaction would result. Operating the HVAC system at a constant setting to keep the passenger cabin at the desired temperature, etc. set point even when the vehicle is not actively in use (i.e. on “standby”) would increase energy consumption. Likewise, turning the HVAC system off during vehicle standby and on to restore the vehicle passenger cabin conditions to desired levels of temperature, etc. prior to returning the vehicle to service would require increased levels of energy consumption, particularly at very hot or very cold ambient temperatures, and would increase the time required to bring the passenger cabin back to a desired comfort level, thereby reducing paid use time for the vehicle.
Accordingly, there is identified a need in the art for methods of reducing energy consumption of autonomous vehicles. The present disclosure solves this and other problems by providing methods and attendant systems for controlling an autonomous vehicle climate control system according to a determined vehicle operating status, and thereby reducing energy consumption of autonomous vehicles.